Read "The Prophet's Mantle" by Edith Nesbit online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As a rule, it was not an easy matter to turn Richard Ferrier from any purpose of his, and when his purpose was that of visiting Miss Stanley and at the same time of putting a stop to any chance of a _tête-à-tête_ between his divinity and his brother, no ordinary red herring would have drawn him off the track.
As he walked through the streets with Roland all his thoughts were with the girl he was going to see -- all his longing was to hasten as much as might be the moment of their meeting. In his mind just then she was the only woman in the world; and yet it was a woman's face in the crowd that made him start so suddenly -- a woman's figure that he turned to follow with so immediate a decision as to give his brother no time to notice his going until he had gone.